Crowdcube recently closed a £3.8 million Series B round and topped it up to £5M by raising £1.2M in just 16 minutes using its own crowdfunding platform, a new world record!
Balderton Capital, which has previously backed fellow alternative finance platforms Zopa and Wonga, is leading the transaction and has installed one of their partners as a member of the Crowdcube board.
The £5 million that raised has been earmarked for investment in UK and overseas expansion. Crowdcube has doubled its team to 50 and opened new satellite offices in London and Scotland alongside its headquarters in Exeter.
In an interview with GrowthBusiness, Crowdcube co-founder Luke Lang said the deal has been closed so that the business can help fulfil its vision and potential for growth.
When quizzed on why the crowdfunding platform had decided to engage with venture capitalists, Lang added, ‘Securing venture capital investment, alongside the crowd, will give us invaluable insight and experience that will help us grow significantly.
With Crowdcube having facilitated £15 million worth of investment for businesses this year, and £30 million since launch in 2011, Lang says the investment puts it in a ‘strong position to really hammer home our advantage’ and expand the market further.
Crowdcube’s last funding round for itself came in May 2013 when a then ‘world record’ crowdfunding transaction saw it raise £1.5 million and secure a value of £7.1 million. Before that, its platform had also been used to raise £320,000 from 162 backers.
Explaining the investment from Balderton’s perspective, Bunting says, ‘We love the way Crowdcube is disrupting and democratising investment into business seeking growth finance; Balderton is always looking to support new approaches to traditional financial services, and Crowdcube’s trailblazing model makes investment accessible, affordable and transparent.’
The news of Crowdcube’s growth capital deal comes on the same day that debt-based peer-to-peer platform Funding Circle banked $65 million from backers including Index Ventures and Accel Partners to continue with its worldwide expansion.
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